Some victims of ransomware—malware that encrypts files and demands that the victim pay to receive the encryption key—might have been rescued by an unlikely savior this week: ransomware authors themselves.

The authors of the Mischa ransomware program said they gained access to the development platform of a rival program called Chimera and posted thousands of its decryption keys online, cybersecurity firm Sophos reported on Thursday.

The notes that accompany the encryption key file posted to Pastebin are vague. Mischa's developers explain that they are not involved with Chimera, but that "earlier this year we got access to big parts of their development system, and included parts of Chimera in our project."

Related

Mischa says it posted "about 3500 decryption keys from Chimera, explaining that "it should not be difficult for antivirus companies to build a decrypter" with them.

Sophos, meanwhile, cautioned that "it will take some time to determine if the leaked RSA keys will actually work to decrypt files locked up by Chimera and for someone to write a decryptor program, but for now, there's at least hope that victims can get their data back."

Ransomware has been on the rise in 2016, affecting individuals as well as corporate entities that its authors view as more likely to pay up. Those include Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, a 434-bed hospital in California, whose network effectively ground to a halt after hackers breached the system in early February. After relying on pen and paper records briefly, Hollywood Presbyterian paid the 40 bitcoin ($17,000) ransom to regain control of its network.

As a hardware analyst, Tom tests and reviews laptops, peripherals, and much more at PC Labs in New York City. He previously covered the consumer tech beat as a news reporter for PCMag in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where he rode in several self-driving cars and witnessed the rise and fall of many startups. Before that, he worked for PCMag's sister site, Computer Shopper, where he occasionally dunked waterproof hard drives in glasses of water. In his spare time, he's written on topics as...
More »